What Armitage now said was interesting. Did he want Bonfire to go talk to this lady immediately? It was a bit of a change, an actual suggestion. Not one that Cass was too fond of, but one nevertheless. Her having some eldritch powers was pretty implied, at least to him. He’d be more surprised if it were to turn out she didn’t have any. It would be interesting to see an eldritch power in action, he’d heard about it but never really seen anything like it. One certain snake mask notwithstanding.
“Are you suggesting I go to Drake immediately? Shouldn’t we actually retrieve the mask first? I feel like she may be looking to get hold of it, but if we are quicker there is no need for it. Even if she does, she already knows you, so you may be better suited to talking to her. “
“As for Zyte, well, as you mentioned. He does what he can to present a story. He’s not actually investigating so much as he is reporting, he wants mystery and drama and all the other things that make a good story. Giving him that while working on this, that’s doable. Means I’ll have to take some precautions, but I can lead him to where he should be. “

That was good enough. He didn’t have to be some sort of tech wizard but knowing how to use a phone meant that Cass didn’t have to deal with the pain of somehow communicating through far more complicated means. He picked out one of his business cards and scrabbled something down, before handing it over to Armitage.
“There’s my number, as well as my E-Mail, I suppose. Should be enough to keep in touch. “
Regarding the eye, Cass was a bit less certain. It sounded useful, sure. But carrying around some magical artefact was one thing. Doing it as Bonfire was another. He only had one pocket, and the amulet would take a fair bit of space. Plus, it meant he had Armitage on him at all times. At the same time, seeing – and hearing - through walls was really, really useful.
“It sounds useful, but I have difficulties carrying objects on me, no matter how small they are. Perhaps it is a better idea if you keep it for now, if we see that it may come n useful we can always meet up and you can give it to me then. “

That did raise a few more concerns. So there was a good chance some rich lady with an actual stake in getting the mask was going to get involved at some point. Chances were she didn’t have that much ethical concerns if she was chasing immortality and had acquaintances like Armitage.
“That is … slightly concerning. If she gets involved, that is one more party that is chasing after the mask. We can’t rule out any other thugs, either…”
And then there was the issue of keeping in touch with the guy.
“I can understand that. Say, is there any way we can stay in touch? I feel like we’ll both need to be able to contact each other at a moment’s notice when we’re dealing with all this mask business, do you have a phone or some other way I could contact you?”

Bonfire seemed quite determined, not stuttering or speaking quietly. “Way too late for that. This is ride or die. I was part of the reason we got into this, and I’m gonna stay on it ‘till we’re done.”
He stretched his arms for a moment, before continuing. “Now, let’s take down this pillar. Airport Security should arrive in a bit, keep your eye on these guys. “
With that, he turned to smoke again, heading towards one of the doors. Meanwhile, the hackers looked around, having grown ever more uncertain. They didn’t say anything anymore, and soon after a group of guards entered the room through the door that Leviathan originally had. They were surprisingly well-equipped, probably ready to take down a potential metahuman.
The woman who likely was the leader began to address the two heroes. “Oh wow, this is quite the find. “ The guards moved in to start arresting the various hackers, who didn’t do anything to resist. “We’ll take it from here, but we’ll need a few statements from both of you regarding this situation. We can do it right here it you want to, but it’ll take some time so we might want to move somewhere warmer?”

That did raise a few questions. Cass didn’t quite believe the mask had just been lost, Armitage was probably hiding something. He was justified in doing so, but it just meant that Cass had to look out a bit more when it came to dealing with him. Probably not wrong to do so either way, to be fair.
“Have you had any contact with her recently? Did you ever mention the mask to her? If not, she may not be an urgent concern, if you did there is a chance we will run across one of her people sooner rather than later. “
“Speaking of running across people, I imagine my … associates … will show up here sooner rather than later, so perhaps we should move to be the ones that meet them instead of the other way around? Might lead to less issues with the ship’s guards, too.”

Bonfire nodded. It wasn’t exactly a reassuring statement, but it wasn’t one that rang any immediate alarms either. Tradition meant Armitage knew what he was talking about, at least. Could probably come in useful later, too. Antiquities of an eldritch sort? Now that was a market niche.
“I see. That does sound like a viable business model. Say, could Ms. Drake have any interest in acquiring the mask through other means? And how did you lose hold of the mask, anyways? If it ended up in the hands of some gang-leader than quite clearly something must’ve happened.”
Cass had some ideas of the situation at this point, but so long as nothing urgent came up he could continue getting some answers. The mask was (probably) safe enough where it was, and somehow it felt unlikely that Zyte and Chill would just charge the ship. Then again, perhaps it was time to get moving at some point…

Bonfire – A.M Freedom
Globe Broadcasting Network Building, Parkside, Freedom City
Friday, March 9th 2018
6:34 AM
It was far too early for Cass to be up. There were times when Coffee helped and then there were times when even the strongest espresso could only do so much. This was one of the latter, because at this point he’d been up for nearly an hour already. More often than not he went to sleep around 5 AM, today it had been when he got up. He’d considered just staying up longer than usual, but today was too important to do so. It was his first live TV appearance.
Bonfire arrived a few minutes before the time he’d agreed upon, just for safety. He couldn’t really evaluate just how punctual Public Transport was at this time of the day, he’d hardly ever used it before. Of course, a man with a head of smoke and wearing a white dress suit walking into the building did cause quite the reaction. The guards were on edge, even if it had been announced that he was visiting today, after all, this was Bonfire, a former eco-terrorist of sorts. A few words with the receptionist (and an autograph for her son) later Bonfire had the necessary ID badge and made his way towards the elevator, where he just got in through the closing doors thanks to a man holding up the door.
“Bonfire, right?” The man spoke quite casually, seemingly unimpressed. Or just tired, it was hard to tell at this hour of the day. “I’m Ron Hunter, Associate Producer for WNTW News. Nice to meet you, I’ve been following your career ever since you first popped up on the national stage. Gotta say, you recovered quite well from that one. “ “Yeah, I’m still surprised how well that went, truth be told. “ A short pause, as Cass realized something. “Hey, is this on the record? “ Hunter, probably somewhere in his mid-30s, grinned. “Almost had you there. But no, let’s keep this off-the-record.” “Alright. Yeah, when AEGIS suddenly dropped in on me I was pretty sure that was the end of it all. Turns out it all worked out quite well, and whenever asks me for my PR credentials, I can just point at that mess and my current position. “ “Hey, speaking of PR, ever thought of switching sides? Usually it’s the other way around but we could probably use somebody like you here at WNTW, just saying. “ “Heh, that’s quite the offer. I’ll consider it, but I think I’m pretty happy with my current position.” Just as he said that, there was a *ding* as the elevator doors opened, with Hunter stepping out halfway, handing Bonfire a business card at the same time. “Well, let me know if you make a decision. And if you have some interesting info in the future, you know who to call.”
With that done, the doors closed again as the elevator continued upwards. Nobody else got in and soon Bonfire stood in front of the studio of A.M Freedom, probably the most watched Morning Talk Show in the city. Steven Parker, one of the show’s longtime hosts, was already there to welcome him. “Bonfire, great to finally meet you in person. Getting here was no problem, I hope?” “Not more than any other journey with the FC Bus system, no. “ “Good to hear. So, we’ll be running rehearsals in a few minutes. I don’t think you’ll have to go through mask, so we’ll just have the guys wire you up and then you’ll be ready. There’s coffee and bread over there, it’s on the house so grab as much as you want. We’ll let you know when we’re ready to start. “ “Sounds good, I look forward to it and will try not to fall asleep until then. “
Once he’d gotten wired up, Cass sat down with a paper cup of coffee. He had roughly ten minutes judging by the current time, so he’d have some time to check what E-Mails came in during the “dead hours”. Generally, not a lot happened during the night, especially since at the moment Beacon didn’t have any high-priority clients in Europe. He opened his E-Mail account, closing his eyes just for a moment. Times like these were when he’d usually see five E-Mails with “Inquiry” somewhere in the subject line because something had happened. He really didn’t want to deal with anything like that right now, so a wave or relief washed over him as he saw that the only new E-Mails were by people he knew and who weren’t journalists.
There was nothing that required his immediate attention, so he could lean back for a few minutes before going on air. He didn’t really know what would be talked about, he’d just woken up to an invite to the show a few days ago. Perhaps they couldn’t get anybody else on, perhaps it was about something that Cass didn’t realize was important. Perhaps it was a trap. At this point, he wouldn’t’ve been surprised, all things told. Even if it would be annoying, he’d specifically brought his best outfit and it wasn’t one he was looking forward to replacing.
Rehearsals were mainly about making sure the tech worked, from what Cass could tell, and after some checks he was called into the studio proper, a nice open room with the window looking over all of Parkside in the back, as the backdrop. Two halves of a round couch around a small table, with some chairs. Almost every citizen of FC knew this. Cass didn’t watch the show regularly, for obvious reasons, but he liked to put it on when he was pulling all-nighters, there usually were interesting talking points. Cass got seated and grabbed one of the many coffee cups as the countdown began. “Ten. “ “Nine.” “Eight.” “Just look into the green camera and you’ll be fine.” “Three.”
And then they went on air. Cass could hear the show’s intro play as he faced the camera and waited for it to turn on.
“A.M Freedom. With Steven and Joanne Parker. “
“Good Morning Freedom. It’s seven-o-one AM, and you’re watching A.M Freedom. “
“Joining us today is somebody you all know. He’s the self-proclaimed Freedom’s Hottest, and he’s made the headlines more than once in his career, Bonfire. “
“Thank you Joanne, it’s an honor to be on the show. Even if I had to get up way too early. “
“So, you’ve been in the business for a fair amount of time now, but what many are probably still wondering is….”

Skills:
These only add up to 69 for me, something may have gone missing at some point?
Powers:
Nauseate is 2PP/R by default, so this would add up to 50PP
The second device is only 30, not 32, so you’ve got 2 PP spare
Confuse is 1PP/R default, so this would only be 20 PP
Emotion Control is 2PP/R, so same as above
Might be worth clarifying that the Alternate Will on Fatigue is a +0, but this one’s not really wrong so much as ease of reading.

Bonfire just nodded as Armitage spoke. So he didn’t have any idea either. Great. Cass had one thing in his mind, but it wasn’t exactly a great option, so for now he’d have to just go with whatever Armitage would come up with. Having a backup didn’t seem like a terrible idea, though.
“You talk about your business, but what exactly is it? What does it entail, who are your usual clients?” Maybe that question would give Cass a better idea of what was up. He was still technically surrounded, after all.
As a response to the mention of thievery, Bonfire merely shrugged. It was nothing he hadn’t done before, he just didn’t need for it to be on camera…

Sorcery. It had to be magic, didn’t it? Cass still didn’t really trust it, so far, he’d only seen it be used a few times. And usually it backfired in one way or another. Not that his powers didn’t. But they generally didn’t include anything “eldritch”, as far as he was aware.
“I have no issues with that. If he’s dragging around a camera with him I don’t really need to have any theft from a police station be on footage. Doesn’t look good in any circumstance, really. I can spin a narrative that should make it more interesting for them and lead them in a different direction, no issues. “
Still, Cass didn’t exactly trust Armitage. Anybody this well protected had something to hide, especially if they saw through invisibility. And were carrying around eldritch devices.
“What comes after that? What’s your plan for getting rid of the mask?”

“Come on, did you really think all this stuff just worked because we were good at hiding? I’m not sure if you’ve ever met with any of the stealthy buggers, because you certainly aren’t one, but they’ve got other, bigger stuff to deal with. And if that means there’s a few small fish swimming around, they don’t care. Better to just accept it as is than to fight against all of us. “
“Up until now, at least. This isn’t gonna be some small, targeted retribution. You’ve just come in here and torn apart one of the pillars that keeps this city working. Guess what’s next, because it won’t be fun for you or any of your colleagues. And if you’re the people that set it all off, guess whose gonna be hit hardest? “
The hacker seemed determined, his words clear and quick, not all that intimidated by the giant lizard staring him down.
“Your choice. Leave now and we’ll chunk it up to a bunch of newbies not knowing their place. Bring us in and you get to deal with the fallout. We won’t have to. “
Bonfire looked over at Leviathan, the hackers on the floor, his phone, and then his friend again. He approached, looking quite uncertain about the whole thing, but not saying anything yet.

Could be worse? Maybe?
Bonfire created a small buzzer made of smoke in his hand and pushed down on it. “Bzz, we have a winner. “ Then, he turned more serious. “Yeah, it’s him. He’s out there following whatever trace he currently has. Unless you wanna end up on TV as “the angry archaeologist” it’s probably best if you humour him for now. Especially ‘cause he already has everything he needs to make that mask the next social media hype. “
Again, Cass sighed internally. This could only go wrong. He still didn’t know why Armitage had this many armed guards – or any for that matter – and with this recent development, part of him hoped he wouldn’t get to know it.
“So, what now? We’ve still got a …cursed or something… mask just lying around at some police station.”